You may be curious how the ancient series of Third System (and older) coastal defenses tolerated the recent Hurricane Matthew. Here is the run down.
Georgia’s Fort Pulaski got about a foot of water throughout the structure and the moat is full for the first time in a long time. Historically the dike was built to withstand close to a 12-foot storm surge, unfortunately, Fort Pulaski experienced a record 12.56 feet.
Speaking of moats, the Castillo de San Marcos (Fort Marion) in St. Augustine is full again as well. The oldest masonry fort in the continental United States, it dates back to 1672.
In an accompaniment to the captured 1911 from yesterday, I think this is interesting.
Ian with Forgotten Weapons takes a gander at a cottage made M1911-ish pistol that has a lot of the same features of a GI longslide, namely the long slide.
A number of these homemade garage guns were built by VC units in South Vietnam that had a hard time getting good Chicom gear shipped down the Hồ Chí Minh trail and, captured by U.S. troops, were brought back as war trophies.
The gun that Ian has, from the Gerard Ruth collection, lacks a safety (though it has a lever for one) a mag release button (though it has a rotating keeper on the bottom of the well) and is constructed with mild steel using brazing. The internals are very 1911 like–except for a lack of locking lugs on the smoothbored barrel, brazed-in breechblock and blowback action. It also has some Spanish and Soviet mechanical additions but don’t worry, they are merely ornamental in function.
Here we see a well-traveled M1911A1 .45ACP Government Issue long slide.
It’s a mismatch gun that likely became such in some long forgotten Army armory, with a (likely Great War era) Colt-marked slide and a 1943 U.S. Army-marked Remington Rand frame from the Second World War. As such, it or at least components, served in both World Wars, probably Korea, and definitely Vietnam.
How do we know the latter? Well, the gun, SN 1431274, was captured north of Da Nang in August 1965 by Warrant Officer Class 2 (WO2) Kevin “Dasher” Wheatley, Australian Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV). The weapon was recovered from rom North Vietnamese Forces who were believed to have captured it earlier from ARVN forces or the Americans.
Wheatly passed it on to war correspondent Pat Burgess as a protective weapon when Burgess suffered a cut on the elbow and had to go to Da Nang accompanied only by some sketchy ARVN troopers.
Courtesy of the Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library
Biplane above the clouds. Handwritten on photograph front: “France, 1918, De Haviland ‘4.’” Handwritten on photograph back: “De Haviland – Liberty Motor, Dear Mum: Put this away for me. Maybe Adam helped make this engine. Ted.”
The fine folks at Picatinny Arsenal are coming up with a hand grenade for the 21st Century that is a lot safer to handle and gives some high tech options to the grunt end user.
The current arsenal standard, the M67 grenade, dates back to Vietnam and uses a pyrotechnic delay fuze to set off about 6.5 ounces of Comp B. The thing is, it’s right hand friendly –the pin that holds the spoon down is oriented to be pulled with the left hand, meaning southpaws are trained to hold the grenade upside down, such as thus:
The new baseball that the Army could be pitching, some five years in the making, will use a fully electronic fuze that is accurate to the millisecond, has a top-mounted pin for easy access by both lefties and righties, and is multi-purpose (both fragmentation and blast overpressure through a flip of a switch– filling a gap left in the Army’s lineup when the MK3A2 concussion grenade was retired in 1975).
The Enhanced Tactical Multi-Purpose (ET-MP) hand grenade, best yet, will be considered completely safe until armed and will be the first Insensitive Munition-qualified lethal grenade in the Army’s arsenal.
“With these upgrades in the ET-MP, not only is the fuze timing completely electronic, but the detonation train is also out-of-line,” said Matthew Hall, Grenades Tech Base Development Lead, in a release from the Army. “Detonation time can now be narrowed down into milliseconds, and until armed, the hand grenade will not be able to detonate.”
Still, I’m not too sure about giving a grenade multiple choice options that have to be chosen at night in the fight and adding electronics to a basic concept that dates back to the 13th century and earlier.
Ian from Forgotten Weapons wraps his scholarly hands around a Marine Corps MC-1952 Sniper Garand, an Army M1C Sniper, and a series of Springfield 1903 sniper rifles for an in-depth look.
In the above video, he chronicles a Marine 1903A1 Springfield with an 8x Unertl scope, a Springfield 1903-A4 with a standard WWII-era M73B1 scope (which was just the commercial Weaver 330C), and a second 1903-A4 with a post World War II M84 rifle scope of the type used through the Korean Conflict into the early stages of the Vietnam War.
If bolt guns aren’t your thing, Ian picks up in the two videos below with the MC-1952, a Marine variation on the M1C Garand sniper rifle with a 4x Stith Kollmorgen Bear Cub scope; an authentic M1C itself with the M84; and of course an M1D.
One of the Texas Flying Legend Museum’s enduring fleet of P-40s.
Texas Warhawk
And she has a great history. From the Commemorative Air Force’s Website:
This P-40E is a cold weather survivor coming out of Elmendorf Field in Anchorage, Alaska. The plane rolled off of the assembly line on January 13th, 1942 as a Curtiss Model H87-A3. The military accepted her as P-40E s/n 41-5709. America was still recovering from the attack on Pearl Harbor and the Japanese were marauding up and down the Aleutian Island Chain. On June 3rd, 1942 the Japanese attacked Fort Mears and Dutch Harbor in the Aleutians. P-40s scrambled from Fort Randall but were too late to turn the Japanese back. The Japanese attacked Dutch Harbor again the next day, but this time American P-40s disrupted the force, shooting down one bomber. On June 5th, 1942 daily P-40 patrols started up in an effort to prevent surprise attacks.On September 26th, 1942, P-40E 41-5709 departed Fort Randall with 1st Lt. Dennis Crisp at the controls as part of the two-ship, daily patrol. Upon landing in the formation, his wingman landed long and ran into 5709′s tail.
Both planes were write-offs that day and ended up on the scrap heap in Cold Bay after the salvage of all usable parts.
The late Dick Odgers and a team of enthusiasts started excavating the dump at Cold Bay in 1987 and recovered significant chunks of 41-5709 among other wrecks. Odgers sold on his projects over the years, and by 1990 ’5709 was with Don Brooks in Douglas, Georgia. She was ready to fly again by August 25th, 2009, when Eliot Cross, a proven test pilot and air show performer, took 41-5709 to the skies again for the first time in 67 years. After the test flights were done, Ray Fowler, Chief Pilot and Executive Producer of the Liberty Foundation, got a turn at the stick and after several hours of flying the P-40E he convinced the board to purchase the fighter to go on tour with their B-17. They removed the rear fuel tank and installed a seat for passenger rides. Walter Bowe purchased the P-40E in 2013, who in turn sold the fighter to the Texas Flying Legends Museum in 2014, although Bowe remains a regular pilot. The P-40E wears the colors of Colonel Robert L. Scott Jr’s aircraft while he commanded the 23rd Fighter Group in the China-Burma-India Theatre during WWII.
She will be one of 7 P-40s at the upcoming 2016 Atlanta Warbird Weekend Sept 24-25, celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the American Volunteer Group (Flying Tigers) so if you are in Georgia or can get there, it will be worth it.
In the first part of 1943, the Army began flirting with a two-piece (jacket and pants) herringbone twill (HBT) camouflage uniform. Now, one thing to note is that this differed from the Marine HBT “duck hunter” or “frog skin” camo that was introduced around the time of the invasion of Tarawa, as the Devil Dog kit was based on their P41 design while the Army’s was a slightly different variant based on Big Green’s M1942 fatigue uniform.
These two-piece camouflage uniforms were fielded by units of the 2nd Armored Division, including the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment and 17th Armored Engineer Battalion, for D-Day. They appear in photos between June to September 1944.
Private Joseph De Freitos of Yonkers (New York) of the 41st Armored Infantry Regiment, 2nd US Armored Division, heats his rations on a stove, taken at Pont-Brocard in late July 1944. There is nothing particularly strange about the way he is wearing his e-tool; this was fairly common when the M1928 haversack was not being used.
Records and photos indicate that at least some units of the 2nd Infantry Division and 30th Infantry Division received them also.
U.S. soldiers in HBT camouflage uniforms in a Half-track M2, Pont Brocard July 28, 1944, 41st Armored Inf. Regiment, 2d Armored Division. Cherbourg Library via Flickr.
Camouflaged US Soldiers of the 41st Armored Infantry Battalion working with the 82nd Reconnaissance Battalion (2nd Armored Division) study a captured German map during Operation Cobra in Normandy, France, in July 1944. Note the added foregrip to the M1 Thompson on the right and the German pistol holster on the scout to the left, the latter surely a “battlefield pickup.”
Battle of Saint-Lô, July 1944, 41st AIR, 2AD. LIFE Frank Scherschel Photographer
These surviving examples from the Normandy Tank Museum show a diorama of 2nd Armored Div troops in your typical battlefield mix-match:
The first dummy has the regular GI shirt, camouflage pants, M1 Garand ammo holder belt, M36 web, M1 Garand reproduction, M28 bag, M1 helmet, gaiters very similar to the medic above. The second dummy has much the same but adds a T shovel worn in the same way as the C-rat connoisseur Pvt. De Freitos above, and gas mask cover. The third has the full HBT suit, original camouflage pants, and jacket, M36 webbing with FM-BAR belt and charger holder. He also seems to have ditched his gaiters because he is that kinda guy.
Saint-Georges-d’Elle Normandy France, July 1944, 2nd Infantry Division, note the camo on the one Soldier to the right. LIFE Archives photo by Frank Scherschel
Saint-Georges-d’Elle, Normandy, France, July 1944, 2nd Infantry Division, note the camo jacket on the one Soldier, the M3 Grease gun in his lap, and the censored unit patch. LIFE Archives photo by Frank Scherschel
The thing is, with so many Waffen SS guys and German Fallschirmjäger wearing camo smocks, the idea of GIs in camo proved unpopular, and they were soon withdrawn from the ETO.
However, the material, especially that of discarded parachutes, was recycled by the locals.
“Homemade dress” made out of a parachute used on D-DAY. It was worn by Renée Catherine, a little girl of Sainte-Mère-Eglise
Speaking of which, there is at least some evidence that German paras found U.S. camo very useful in Normandy.
A German cavalry officer (note the spurs and breeches) during the battle for Normandy wearing a crude cover fashioned from U.S. parachute silk duck hunter camo peers through a hedgerow. Also, note his Beretta 38 SMG
Fallschirmjäger at Normandy wearing a cloth cover made from U.S. duck hunter camouflaged cloth, secured to the helmet with a chicken-wire keeper
Meanwhile, in warmer climes
Some U.S. Army units were issued some of the two-piece HBTs in the Pacific late in the war.
U.S. Army Alamo Scouts, two in HBT uniforms. William E. Nellist (middle) pictured with unidentified trainees from the 4th Class. Cape Kassoe, Hollandia, DNG. August 1944. Dig the folding stock para model M1A1 Carbines, very useful in jungle fighting. Via Alamo Scouts website.
Official caption: “Nissan Atoll, Green Islands, South Pacific, 31 January 1944: Inside enemy territory, a recon party lands, senses keyed up for sounds of the Japanese troops known to be present. A perilous fact-finding mission is underway.” The SMLEs and Mills bombs on the men in the center of the landing craft point to Commonwealth troops, probably Australian, in Marine frogskin camo. The non-camo’d fellows at the ramp are likely USCG. A Marine is at the rear, his M1 Carbine at the ready
That theater also saw the use of a one-piece uniform jumpsuit. They were reversible with regular mustard green on the inside.
27th Infantry Division trains in Hawaii before embarking on the amphibious operation to seize Makin in the Gilbert Islands, Fall 1943. A soldier in one piece camouflage uniform is to the right.
Issued briefly, this zippered onesie was found by the Joe in the field to suck balls and was withdrawn.
Many of the Army’s surplus HBT went on to be donated to French forces such as was seen operating in French Indochina, and the Dutch trying to pacify their East Indies archipelago.
HBT-clad French Paratroops in Indochina circa 1953 ready their MAT-49 submachine guns for an assault on Viet Minh guerrillas
Dutch KNIL infantry with British SMLE Enfields fighting Indonesian separatists in 1948– dig the ex-Army HBT
Dutch Lt. Gen. Pieter Lodewijk Gerard Doorman (center-right, just inside the frame) speaks to a duck hunter camo’d crew member of a recycled Japanese Type 89 I-Go medium tank during a visit to 1e Bataljon, 9e Regiment Infanterie (1-9 RI “Friesland”) in Cimahi, Dutch East Indies, September 1946. Formed in the Netherlands in Sept.1945 just after the liberation from German occupation, 1-9 R.I. was sent to the UK in late 1945 for training and basic Malay language lessons, then landed in Batavia on Java as part of V-Brigade in Feb. 1946, where they no doubt picked up the above Japanese armor. Fighting through the Indonesian wars, they were shipped back to Europe (likely sans tanks) and disbanded in August 1948.
The Bay of Pigs gang, Brigade 2506, utilized a significant amount of surplus WWII U.S. gear, including M1941 Johnson rifles and camouflage patterns commonly used by duck hunters.
U.S. Army Special Forces, Vietnam, Sept. 1966. Note camo beret, BAR, and M3 Grease gun. D-Day in the A-Shau
Here is a look at how effective the “Beo Gam” was in Indochina:
And of course, as with anything, both surplus and recreations were popular with hunters in the 1950s and 60s as seen in this 1952 sportsman’s catalog image:
Interestingly enough, Colombia, Turkey, Iran, and Red China adopted duck hunter-like schemes for a time in the 1970s and early 1980s, effectively sealing the fate of the pattern in military service.
Colombia frog duck hunter camo called “Tigrillo” circa 1980s. Note the Galil
Turkish soldiers stand ready during the war in Cyprus, the 1970s with locally made HK G3s and Aegean camouflage pattern, based on American frogskin
Iranian soldiers photographed during the Iran-Iraq War, in the 1980s. The man in front has a locally made version of American P42 camouflage, which was made in the 1970s for the Shah and continued to serve in the war against Saddam
This rakish Chicom soldier during the Sino-Vietnamese War (1979) is wearing Type 81 duck hunter camouflage, with a Type 56 AKMS over his shoulder and a painted combat helmet hanging from the muzzle
View of a Curtiss Warhawk P-40F fighter plane. Label on back: “New Curtiss Warhawk fighter for the U.S. Army Air Forces. Shown in this close-up flight photo is the U.S. Army Air Forces’ new Curtiss Warhawk P-40F fighter, the faster, heavily armed, high-climbing successor to the Curtiss P-40, Tomahawk and Kittyhawk types widely used by American pilots and made famous by the ‘Flying Tigers’ of the AVG in China and the Royal Air Force in the Middle East. The first U.S. military plane to be powered with the new American-built Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the new Warhawk incorporates many advances developed in actual air combat. It is in the 400 m.p.h. class but details of its performance are withheld.” Stamped on back: “It is absolutely forbidden to reproduce, syndicate or use this photo for advertising purposes with written permission. Photo by Rudy Arnold, press photographer. P.O. Box 60, Sheepshead Bay Station, Brooklyn, N.Y. Newspaper, magazine, aerial & color photography.” Handwritten on back: “Aircraft in action.”
Courtesy of the National Automotive History Collection, Detroit Public Library
A lot of people hate colorized monochrome images. I happen to like them, however, what you see here are historical Autochrome images, an early color process (sourced from here).
The images are a stunning time capsule.
Here we see a 1927 shot by Edwin L. Wisherd of three men standing in front of a plane on the Crow Reservation in Montana.
Note the early rubber doughnut suspension tires, similar to those used by the Curtiss Carrier Pigeon and Lark mail delivery aircraft. Image: Edwin L. Wisherd/National Geographic Creative/Corbis
The visiting biplane was evidently part of a U.S. Army commemoration at Little Big Horn, which saw its 50th anniversary the previous summer.
Crow Indian Reservation, Montana – Men stand at the site of the monument to the Seventh Cavalry–the proposed Custer battle memorial site. (from left) Col. J.M.T. Portello, former field adjutant to Gen. Miles, White Man Runs Him (grandfather of Joe Medicine Crow) , E.S. Godfrey, lieutenant under Custer (by 1927 he was a general), and Curley, one of Custer’s scouts. Curley is in the biplane photo as well. Image: Edwin L. Wisherd/National Geographic Creative/Corbis
The plane pictured was cutting edge at the time– what seems to be a very early variant of the Curtiss Model 37 Falcon.
On 2 July 1926, legislation backed in large part by the Morrow panel–the Air Corps Act (44 Stat. 780) came into law under the not too impressed administration of President Calvin Coolidge. It established the Corps, stopped the bleeding that had gone on since 1919, and began a five-year plan to revamp the service. This meant replacing legacy WWI Spads, Jennys, JH-6s and P-1s with more modern aircraft, up to 1,800 of them in fact, nearly doubling the number of squadrons in the country.
One of these new types was the Curtiss factory’s Falcon, powered by a beefy 435hp Curtiss V-1150 (D-12) engine. Built in two main variants, an A3 attack model mounting as many as 6 machine guns and capable of carrying 200lbs of bombs, and the O1/O11 two-seat observation plane with twin Lewis guns in the backseater spot, deliveries started IOC in 1927– meaning the O1 shown above was brand spanking new and, in the vernacular of the time, the Bee’s Knees.
The Army wound up with 338 total variants which they used through 1937, some of which were gifted to the Philippine Army Air Corps, operating out of Zablan Airfield, and subsequently lost in the opening stages of WWII.
The Navy and Marines picked up another 150 in A3/A4 Helldiver, F8C Falcon (a greatly modified design with a Pratt & Whitney R-1340 Wasp engine that was the the first purpose-built dive bomber to be produced for the US Navy) and O2C Helldiver variants for observation, attack and light bombing. They could carry two 116lb bombs under the wings or one 500lb bomb under the fuselage. Although some made up “Bombing Two” on Saratoga, they largely passed to the Navy Reserve in the 1930s.
Notably, they appeared in a couple of Hollywood “Wings” follow-ons, Flight (1929) and Hell Divers (1932), the latter a talkie with Clark Gable (without his iconic mustache)– who went on to serve in the USAAF in WWII, rising to the rank of Major.
